Art cont'd

To further elaborate, I do not mean to imply that purchasing art to purchase social standing is in any way new. That particular practice has an ancient pedigree. Most of the Greek sculpture which survives is in the form of Roman-era copies of Greek classics, often marble copies of bronze originals. There was a thriving market for fancy portraits of Tudor New Men. Clearly this is not a recent trend. The difference is, in the past the market was small enough and dispersed enough that artists couldn't work "on spec" with the idea that whatever they produced, someone could be found to buy it (once they had enough of a reputation to attach social cachet to their works, though there is a fairly sizable market for art in general, as there is a social cachet to having original works, even if of dubious intrinsic worth). Instead, artists would seek wealthy patrons and solicit commissions from them.